Friday Poll: What is Your Typical Screen on Time in a Day?

How many hours per day do you spend looking at your phone? That’s essentially what we are looking for when we ask, “What is your typical screen on time in a day?” Actually, it’s deeper than that, because it’s a metric (if you can call it that) that we look at while doing reviews to give you a sense of the battery life we are getting with a particular device.

I can tell you that I average around two hours of screen on time per day, but that can jump up to three or four hours during a review period. I would consider myself to be a pretty average user, since I sit at a computer doing most of my work during the day, with the phone acting as a sidekick until it becomes my main computing device at night. But I know that many of you are using your phones for everything, from the minute you wake up until the minute you lay your head on a pillow. With that type of use, I can imagine that five hours could be average.

So, let’s find out what the official Droid Life average is for screen on time.

For those new, you can find screen on time by jumping into Settings>Power/Battery and then tapping on “Screen” in the list of items gobbling up battery power.

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Jeremy Gross

I get maybe 2-3 hours on my droid RAZR HD If I’m not using datadata. If my phone would last longer, I would def use it more. It’s time to upgrade

wmsco1

I use to do about 3 to 4 hrs mon_friday which was the reason why I went to the note phone’s. I would look up and have blurred vision. I’d chuckel when I see a small phone user with the phone 5 to 6 inches from there face trying to read it. But now I use my tablet for 3 to 4 hours a night on a stand with Bose Bluetooth speaker, updated tablet to Note 12.2 (SWEET) with multi screen. Tablet talk app or Samsung side sync, can answer the phone and text. My phone just may be a hour a day. So I’m happy, how but you?

Dave

I can’t find the picture, but I had 7 hours 8 minutes with around 38% left. It’s my profile picture.

CoolSilver

I know mine is well over 3 hours… I’m often recharging as I use my phone during breaks and lunch, sometimes with google maps on to and from work 45 minutes a piece.

Chole Necu Da Kazem

Note 2, CM 11 8h 41m

Chole Necu Da Kazem

Note 2 CM 11

Guest

Note 2 CM 11 8:41

Chole Necu Da Kazem

Note2 CM11 8:41

Rob

About 15 minutes…Galaxy SIII

Alex Richards

Since getting a OnePlus One, my SOT has been over 5 hours which is up from the 1-3 I was getting on the Nexus 5 with the same usage patterns. Really impressed.

Battery tests are one of the hardest tests to compare since so many variables, LTE, WiFi, Screen resolution, chip-set, apps being used. Guess a formula could be created to duplicate from device to device to try and get an average.

Captain Spaulding

LG G2 Cloudy G3 2.0

swaroop

Using ever reliable LG G flex.

Jordana Lewis

Z3 coming from a Nexus 5. The battery life is bloody awesome. The screenshots are from yesterday (had already charged by time of reading so I couldn’t post today’s OST), but today I recorded a full HD video for half an hour and it only took 8%. That would have taken a chunk out of my N5’s battery.

subiedude85

I get about 45 minutes on my 2013 X but I work in an area with beyond terrible reception though. Sometimes I get 2 hours on the weekend but that’s hit and miss. Very inconsistent even in good coverage

I can honestly say that anyone over five really needs to look up a little more. You are essentially spending the same
Amount of time sleeping as you would staring at just your phone screen.

Jordana Lewis

Way to be judgemental there. There are more reasons than gaming to have your screen on for so long. Reading course material, taking photos of the blackboard, recording videos of lectures, watching Automatic Control Systems and Heat Transfer videos on YouTube… That’s my typical day, and it all counts towards screen on time.

Brandon Giesel

On most days, I get 4.5 hours of on screen time on my Motorola Droid Maxx. I plug it in at the end of the day most days usally around 30% battery left.

A Walker

I average around 2 hours. Unless you’re using your phone as primary working tool I don’t see how anyone could sit in front of their phone for 4 to 5 hours a day.

wmsco1

Turn the TV off. Very easy to achieve your estimate. Start getting the news the way you want learn about stuff and interest and videos on all kinds of things. Articles, magazines, and Google search inquiry, friend’s family and neighbors across the country. Whew! 4 or 5 hours easy.

rodney11ride

3- 6 hours easy droid maxx hd

yankeesusa

If my g3 didn’t have this 2k screen it would actually last as long as i want it to. I’m going back to the oneplus or getting the note 4. The battery on my g3 used to be good, even as good as the g2 sometimes. Now it is just too inconsistent.

The OEMs are going to see this and say battery life is not as important as long as they can get 3 hours sot. /s

Pierito

4 – 5 hours….xperia z3 compact

Zharrief

Z3 compact, 7hrs SoT. really pushed it to the limit this day, 3hrs with 40% left when hitting the bed is more typical

Pootis Man

To anyone getting over 5hr of OST: I hate you..
PS: Yes I own a Nexus 5…

John May

If I browsed Reddit or the web all day, I could probably get 5 hrs. SOT. I am running rooted stock and Greenify, that’s all. I even have location tracking and history turned on.

Xavier_NYC

lol are you running stock nexus or did you root and flash any roms or added any mods?

Pootis Man

Nope. Completely stock.

jaylanPHNX

My record on N5 was 7 hours SOT, but that was super ideal conditions (WiFi, good signal) and almost exclusively reading via Tapatalk or the Kindle app. I was very proud until I realized that I spent 7 hours on my phone in one day, at which point I felt like a loser. I usually only get 2-3 hours, sometimes less because I do a lot of streaming music/radio in poor signal.

Pootis Man

My average is between 3 and 4 which isn’t bad, but I’m a very heavy user. I would have to be getting something like 6+ in order to make it through the day. I’m pretty sure though (being the heavy use that I am) that I would still have to charge the phone at least once more during the day, even if I did get 6+ of OST.

steve

Depending on usage time, etc, I can get 5-8 hours of screen time with my Droid Maxx.

Zharrief

Went from Moto X 2014 to Z3 Compact, never looked back

Guest

Screenshots

Xavier_NYC

That’s really f ing impressive.

Matches Malone

mother of god…

Andy Lettis

Would you rate the z3 compact? I recommended it to a friend as fitted their needs but had no hands on of it

clobberedchina

You guys live lives that are a lot more exciting than mine The new Moto X has battery life just about like the old one did. I never worry about having enough juice. 2 hours on a busy day for me.

ILikeAndroid

I’m lucky to get over an hour and a half on my s4

Guest

Z3 Compact FTW

frewquinnn

~2 hrs on my Nexus 4. 3.5 to 4 hrs on my wife’s Moto X 2013

JSo

I don’t know. I never pay attention to it

staticx57

Typically around 4 hours SoT on my G2 playing Clash of Clans, Astronest, Galactic heroes, and web browsing. So not very graphics intensive but data intensive. But it is usually on Wifi so it is not that bad. I reckon less gaming and more 4G would about even out anyways. This is also running Cloudy G3 ROM.

Seekandfind

I’ll cast my vote at the end of day. I don’t know screen on time(poll question), but I consider myself a heavy user and taking off the charger at 730am by 10pm night it’s usually telling me find a charger. So ya Maxx 48hrs of usage bhahaha ya right.

ICH

12h On-Screen with Sony Z3 Compat

Andrew Branch

Mine would probably be more than 1-2 hours if the Nexus 5 didn’t have such a POS battery.

JoshGroff

I get ~2-3 with AOKP and auto brightness off and set on low, could probably hit 3-4 if I underclocked and switched to a different kernel, but it lasts me through a good day so why bother.

JoshGroff

Screenshots because proof = OP.

hippo

Less time than I spend reading DL!

the truth

if you’re looking at your phone for more than an hour a day you should probably get a life. what people do on their phones for 2-3 hours is beyond me (unless you’re commuting)

Godzilla

i feel the same way, not everyone has a job where they are allowed to watch porn all day or even touch their phone for more than their half hour lunch break.

Illinipoke

But plenty of us DO have jobs that allow you to do whatever for a couple of hours every day. Depends on the type of work and the industry. Half hour lunch break? Ouch 🙁

guest

I run a business and gets lots of emails about 60 a day and looking at pdfs on the fly. So ya…..

Brett Crowley

LG g2. Bout 2. 5 hours maybe 3. I have a ss somewhere, maybe.

j

I’m at 5 hours 52 minutes on screen time on my G2. I just plugged it in (was at 19% battery a few minutes ago). Half wifi, half LTE.

I typically get around 30-35 hours phone on, with 4-6 hours on screen time. running a modified stock rom.

G2 ROCKS.

turdbogls

agreed. running a stock android ROM I get betwen 4.5-5 hours screen on time over a full day…with a LOT of music (during work) over BT and I would say 50/50 WiFi and LTE.

this phone is a beast.

I was seeing about 3 on my Lollipopped Nexus 4 through the same usage though…but that was with a better signal and HSPA

Brett Crowley

Yeah this is all stock rom, just rooted to deleted bloat. I’m mostly 50/50 wifi. This phone really does rock! And when it gets 5.0 it’ll be even better! It’s hard to really test this battery out whenever I play clash, typically an hour of screen time + an hour of regular use is what I get before I get to 30% at then I’ll throw a charge on it.

Gaurav K

For me its usually about an hour (using Moto X 2013) since I’m mainly on my 2012 Nexus 7.

Raven

I am similar. Most of my screen time is on my Nexus 7 2013 at home and at work. I only use my Moto X 2013 when I am out and about elsewhere without it, and now that I have a Moto 360 linked to my Moto X that screen time is even less.

InvaderDJ

It really varies for my M8 (and the 4.4.4 update has really wrecked my battery life, I see a wipe in a future but have to figure out how that works with two factor authentication) but on 4.4.3 I could get up to 5hrs screen on time while on cellular. 4hrs was easily reachable unless I had really bad signal.

jwildman16

Isn’t that the new Turbo? It’s hard to tell how much battery is left, but 2h9m does not seem that impressive…

illinipoke

I was just wondering the same thing.

turdbogls

could be a first day, could have started from a lower chage, there are lots of factors here.

Nicholas Ruiz

I use about 3 to 4 hours a day. My OnePlus can get to five hours screen time if I need it to and still have a little spare change at bed time. Battery life on this phone is beastly

CasperTFG

Amen to that. It’s hard to kill my OPO battery.

Nicholas Ruiz

I haven’t gotten two days from mine but I haven’t tried. Comic Sans man? 😛

CasperTFG

For like a week. Then I got tired of it. Back to stock font.

leffer

I consistently get ~3.5 hrs on the 2014 Moto X. Which is the same as I did with the 2013 Moto X. Allows me to survive a full day pretty easily.

Brock Dawkins

My oneplus easily gets 5 hours screen on time. Other day I used navigation to and from LA from the IE used my phone all day took pictures and watched videos got home at midnight and still had battery. My old nexus 5 and s3 couldn’t hold a candle to this phone.

Josh Martin

Now that I have my Moto 360, my screen on time is literally under 20 minutes a day lol

mike

I voted 1-2 hours. I also stream music for about 90 minutes a day and that doesn’t require the screen being on. With the G3 I’m barely at 50% by the end of my day now. If i game it’s obviously much lower but if it’s just texting and web browsing with some music, i get almost 2 days out of a charge.

I find it funny even though you specifically asked “How much time do you spend looking at your phone each day?” people are still reporting their SoT for a single charge.

Godzilla

The moto X battery complaints have been proven to be baseless. At least in my experience. I watched netflix one day on wifi and got 5 hours of screen time. That’s plenty for a 2300 battery

cns2007

Have to agree. I still don’t think the phone is for heavy/power users, but more than enough for the average user. I average ~3.5-4.

Asa Thomas

Screenshots from the other day. 2013 Moto X on Verizon.

Asa Thomas

I’ve found this to be inconsistent as my phone probably spent 2-3 hours off WiFi that day, which isn’t the norm, yet it performed better here than some other days where I’ve spent 99% of my time on WiFi.

Yeah it’s clutch. All three are great choices, you can’t go wrong either way. The Droid Turbo is beasty though with that battery and camera

Andy Lettis

Its not available in the UK as far as I know.. 🙁

Xavier_NYC

After further review, you’re not missing out on anything with the droid. It’s a good phone but nothing exciting about it. I got it for my little brother about a week ago. Battery life is great but it’s just, blahhh

IHATEHIPSTERSSS

My iPhone 6 gets more than that.

Xavier_NYC

I would hope so considering 1) My phone has a QHD display, what’s the iPhone stuck on 720? 2) My screen an inch bigger 3) My phone actually has functionality like multitasking that consumes more battery. What exactly can the iPhone do? But yeah the iPhone sounds great..

IHATEHIPSTERSSS

IPhone multitasks better than android (unless you can link me to a video that proves otherwise) and the iPhone 6 plus gets even better battery life than this as well. Even though its thinner, lighter and has a smaller battery lol.

Xavier_NYC

LMAO you’re referring to switching apps as multitasking hahaha. iPhone’s don’t have enough ram to support actual multitasking which last I checked meant running things simultaneously for example I can either 1) Have a youtube video and my email open at the same time and running perfectly fine or 2) have up to 20 different applications open on my screen at the same time. Once again it has a smaller screen and lower resolution and the 6 plus battery is only 300 mAh smaller. The 6 plus is bigger than the Note 4 with a smaller screen. It’s clear that you have no clue about tech so I’ll just leave it at that..

IHATEHIPSTERSSS

I’ll see myself out…

BigTimmay

ALL WiFi though.

mos

Wifi, I see.

jerflash

Funny my argument made this poll happen lol. Just figured many people here had 3-4 or 4-5 hour days. Since I have been rocking the LG G3 I have been using my phone more for more things. I think when you have a phone with better battery life, you use it more. I know when I have the Nexus 5 I used it less to save battery

Asa Thomas

That doesn’t stop my wife, haha. Her Moto X (2013) is always running on fumes it seems … And she runs it till it’s dead a couple times a week routinely. I should check her screen on time, and post it here.

Celeras

Just a shame you couldn’t be on the winning side 😉 You were crazy to think 4-5 was the norm, though.

Shawn Spring

My G3 usually gets between 4-5 hours of SOT on WiFi, about 2-3 on LTE, but with Android Wear and my BT on all the time, I’ve noticed a slight drop. But it gets me thru a full day no problem, but it spends a lot of time in deep sleep on my desk at work.

TopXKiller

plus I have 2 extra stock batteries to swap in 😀

Daeshaun

2-3 hours. I send 2-3 emails. maybe 40 texts and 50 hangouts messages per day. Read a number of random articles and scroll through the front page of reddit. I don’t watch any video unless it’s something i scroll by on instagram. No Fb or twitter. Few Snapchats.

Carlton Crasher

I’d say Id fit into your description. On a nexus 5 though with Facebook.

Nick Bohl

HTC m8, google edition ROM, with underclocked kernel. I still only manage 1.5-2.5hrs with google now on, but I actually use google now a lot so its worth the trade off.

Edit: 2 months ago I would get 4-5hrs. Haven’t changed ROM or kernel so not sure what’s different, can’t imagine that I the battery has degraded this much. The rom did obv. Get upgraded to 4.4.4 but I also would hope that the update wouldn’t drain that much more battery.

adbFreedom

I saw that the Nexus 6 says 10 hours of video playback in the specs.. Can that be right? I am lucky to get 3-4 hours of screen on time on any device I have used in the last few years.

MistaButters

Nexus 5 says 7 hours of playback on it’s specs, but realistically get’s about half that. So I expect the Nexus 6 to get 5 hours of on screen time.

My record was an 8 hour Netflix binge on the Note 2 with a custom rom and low brightness.

Lunkman

8 hours of Netflix on a Note 2? Please tell me that you were travelling, otherwise buy a TV!

Dedren

This looks legit now since owning an HTC One M8 I get 8-9 hours with heavy gaming and 10-12 with average use. The battery in the Nexus 6 is much bigger and less bloat than even my HTC

MistaButters

I call BS on that without a screenshot of your battery life. No way that phone gets 8-9 hours of on screen time even browsing the web, let alone gaming.

Dedren

HTC doesn’t show it any more, so I have to time it myself, which I had done extensively when I first had the phone. Back then, on an average day with about 40% screen on time and Clash of Clans every couple hours,I would take it off the charger at 7:30 am and would not have the phone turnoff until around 9 pm. NOW however, it only makes 10 hours with the same usage.

MistaButters

All of those times sound reasonable. But 8-9 hours of on-screen time or 10-12 even just sounds ridiculous. The best phones in the game don’t hit 8 hours of on screen time. Most phones get around 3-4 hours of on-screen time, including the M8.

This is bad. I’d do what @MistaButters:disqus suggested. I get 2-3 hours on my moto x 2013 and still have 10-15% left when i go to bed. up at 7AM, bed by 11PM. EDIT: and i’m running stock unrooted with bluetooth, wifi, and GPS on constantly. never turn any of those three off.

frewquinnn

My wife gets about 3.5 hrs. something is not right

Asa Thomas

Yeah, man. That’s awful. Factory reset?

Maybe try BatteryGuru? I don’t know if it really helps … I use it, and it’s certainly not hurting.

Dan

I had some issues with battery life, got an exchanged phone and it’s been phenomenal. I’m getting home at the end of the day with 50%+ battery and that’s with 2-3 hours of screen time.

TheRunner024

I usually get around 3 to 4 hours of Screen on Time on my Moto X (2013) .

Whoa…3-3.5 hours on HTC One M8?! I time mine myself and on heavy gaming days I get 8 hours. Even running Ingress for 5 hours straight I had a lot of battery left…do you mind me asking what app is showing as your highest screen on time usage?

You’re an Absolute liar. I 0wn the M8 and I get fantastic battery life, but even then it’s about 6 hours screen on time. Why do people try to spread lies on here, they know they’re going to get found out.

Dedren

My test goes like this: I charge the phone all night while it is off. At 7:30am I turn it on and enable an app to keep the screen on (HTC maxes at 1 hour for display timeout), then I use it during the time to play Clash of Clans, use Waze and Google Maps navigation to get to and from work, watch Plex for about an hour during the time.

I have done this test at least 3 times since I have owned the phone, each time the screen on time number has been going down. My last test was a little more than 8 hours.

I have repeated this process for every phone I have owned for the last 3 years (4 phones) and this is my result. This is my most realistic use case, so I stand by that number.

JoshGroff

SoT is exponentially better if it’s on from when you unplug it to when it dies, so I believe you. Same thing happened with my 8 hour Netflix binge on my old note 2. Which typically had 4-5 hours on a normal usage.

Dedren

This is my working theory too, so I have been testing it lately, and so far it is spot on. With intervals of screen on and screen off, total screen on time is WAY WAY lower. But if you leave the screen on the entire time you get a lot longer screen on time.

Dedren

So I finally got to complete this series of tests and without a doubt, leaving the screen on for the entire time gives you a ridiculous amount of onscreen time! I couldn’t wait any longer to see when it actually died, but I think the point was proven here. Also, there was NO GPS usage during this time, so that plays a huge part as well apparently. You’ll notice the dip near the end when I started testing the effects of turning the screen off and on…it was huge! So leave your screen on all the time for great battery life on HTC M8 if you are a heavy user.

The longest I have ever had for onscreen time before this was a bit under 9 hours, but this was virtually 13 hours…and is just nuts. I do not think I could make it 8 hours streaming Netflix though, me nor the phone.

When I hit 9 hours I checked it and saw so much battery left I thought the phone had just frozen, but sure enough it was still loading my G+ feed every 15 minutes also there was a boatload of app updates happening (around 20+) which seemed to be all the new Material design apps.

—

My Testing:
To do this test I started using the GSam Battery Monitor app, but it drained the battery like nobody’s business, so I just used the built in battery monitor and an app called “Refresher (for Google+) Beta” which refreshed my Google+ feed every 15 minutes (I get about 20 posts per minute) and kept the screen on.

Derek Robinson

I’ve noticed the apps I have installed make a huge difference. Had to uninstall my podcast app because it ate 40% of my battery in one day.

Normally I can get through a full day with about 60% of my battery left no problem though.

Android L also takes away that number, at least in the preview version.

M3D1T8R

At home I’m on my tablet instead of my phone, so figuring that, over 5hrs. Typical overall usage though is probably around 4.

NeilOMalley

2013 Moto X. Average use since June 6 2014 is 2 Hours 40 Minutes.

Jared Denman

It depends on if it’s nexus 6 launch day or not. I had over 5 hours the other day trying to keep buying a n6, but had 0 luck.

Dannyseed

Wish I knew but I get about 8 hours of usage on my iPhone 6

MistaButters

On Battery tests, the iPhone 6 usually falls between the iPhone 5S and Galaxy S5. Neither of those phones make it 8 hours under normal use. Most real world accounts put the battery on par with the 5S, which is in the 4-5 hour on screen ballpark.

Eric R.

That’s crap. My m8 gets 17 hours of total usage. Not sure about screen but probably around 3 hours

C-Law

Most of my phones tend to get 3-4 hours. The only time I ever got above 5 hours was with a Note 2 I had. I’ve been very pleased with my Moto X 2013. The worst experience I had with screen on time was either the gnex or galaxy s4. I don’t even remember what the OG droid could do.

BobbyG

I’d say around 4-5 hours. Not really positive because it resets once the phone is fully charged but most days I can go without the need for a charger. Though Clash of Clans does drain the batter of my G2